Tag Archives: getting a loan

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Welcome to another episode of Monday Mortgage Madness! In today’s article we are going to reveal 3 ways to save some money in your transactions before closing on a home.

When you order your appraisal be mindful of a couple things:

Have it done upfront. Any health or safety related.You have to make sure all repairs get taken care of, before you move into a new property.

During the inspection portion of the home appraisal, the appraiser considers both the interior and exterior of a home to get the best value of the house.

Exterior-wise, the appraiser will consider:

The total land area or acreage of your property

The condition of the property

Any lead or peeling paint, but only if the house was built prior to 1979

Interior-wise:

Working furnace

Working air conditioning

Number of rooms, although they will also consider windows and closets

Garage, although it does not contribute to the square footage of the home

Upgraded basement, although it does not contribute to the square footage of the home

Built-in appliance upgrades

In-ground pool

If you decide to make upgrades in your home, you need to make sure they are completed before you schedule an appraisal. Unfinished projects reflect poorly on the home value and you will be affected by appraisal extra fees.

The same goes for the presentation of your home. While an appraiser cannot take the overall cleanliness and style into account, the estimated value of your home may be affected by holes in the wall or peeling paint, for example.

Home Appraisal Checklist

The appraiser will also look for anything needing repairs. Here are some things to check out before your appraisal:

Check your electric garage door opener to make sure it’s working

Secure a handrail on steps or stairwells

Secure second floor doors with decks

Secure a railing to any and all raised decks

Ensure all utilities are functional with no safety issues

Ensure water, electricity and air conditioning is functional

Address any plumbing, roof leaks or stains

Check for cracks in the walls, ceiling or foundation

Check for water intrusion through the foundation

Ensure your roof is sound and has at least three years of economic life remaining

By addressing all these, you’ll be better prepared for an appraisal inspection and you’ll likely improve your home’s value.

2. Funds need to be verified

Evidence of Proof of Funds for Balance of Down Payment

Then we have the funds required to close escrow, the balance of the down payment plus closing costs.

The process is always the same: the buyer needs to present certain documentation and get it verified.Here are a few sample types of documentation:

– Original bank statement

– Online banking statement

– An open equity line of credit

– Copy of money market account balance

– Certified financial statement

3-.Keep your credit cards at same balances

Many of you may not know that making moves such as buying furniture before closing on a home, may make a big difference actually.

When you are in the final stages of getting a mortgage, it’s a good idea to stop using your credit cards, or at least cut way back on credit card spending. Stay patient and be cautious and you’ll secure your future house.

So that’s all for today, hope you found this article useful so far and don’t hesitate in reaching me out if you have any questions or need a consultation.

Featured

Today we are going to tell you why getting a loan can be very beneficial for you and how to get the most out of it.

Here are the different points that we are going to touch during this post:

Getting a mortgage can be a great thing for your future

Interest deduction( what’s that and why should I know about it?)

Fixed payment

Increasing equity

Getting a mortgage sounds like a scary step for most of us, and rightfully so it can be if it’s not done right. When someone buys a house, it’s very common to see the case of a confident man/woman/couple who think that they can pay a 30 year mortgage quicker than they are supposed to, and this is a frequent mistake that leads to financial crisis in many cases and regretting having taken a mortgage in the first place.

Don’t be one of those people, and make sure you take your time and evaluate things before jumping off a bridge. If, at the moment, with your current financial situation, you just can afford to go for a 30 year mortgage, wait and save more money. Why? Because you don’t want to become a bank’s slave, pay extra commissions and having that mortgage as the worst of your nightmares. Nearly 100% of the US citizens end up paying extra commissions that benefit the richer and make them poorer in the end.

Getting a mortgage can be a great thing for your future when you save a down payment of at least 10%, but ideally 25%, to then apply to a 15 year fixed-rate mortgage that will ensure a much brighter and happier future.

The interest deduction is another interesting matter to take a look at when buying a property. It can decrease the amount of taxes you’d have to pay for a mortgage, which is certainly something to take into consideration.

One of the reasons reason why in Sean La Rue Home Loans we recommend purchasing a property is because of building equity, which represents one of the main financial benefits of homeownership.

Equity means, in a simple way, how much you owe from your actual home. You have negative equity when you take your loan balance from the value of your home and the result is a negative number.

When can we improve our equity?

1- When we get rid of a good amount of our mortgage payment

2- When the market’s price of our place goes up

*How to reduce loan balance:

Apply for short mortgages: on average, people struggle a lot more when having to pay longer term mortgages than shorter ones, so you may want to save some more money and make sure you pay your home in the least amount of time possible!

Make big payments when you can: if things are going well for you, why not taking out some of that mortgage payment? I’m sure it’ll be such a relief.

Be consistent with your monthly payments: consistency is everything when paying a mortgage, that’s why as time passes, if you’ve been paying regularly every month, more of each payment goes towards equity, and less of each payment becomes interest charges.

People have mixed feelings about mortgages, some think that it’s like you are forced to save money every month, and what many don’t see is that you are building up the value of an asset. With a home, the asset isn’t cash in a savings account—it’s equity in your home.

So that’s all for today, hope you found this article useful so far and don’t hesitate in reaching me out if you have any questions or need a consultation.

Featured

As we mentioned in the video, C.I.A stands for credit, income and assets. We are going to go more in deep in this article about these 3 to learn what it takes to increase our chances of getting pre-approved for a mortgage.

Here are the list of things we’ll have to pay attention to and how everything works:

1. We need to prove our income

Nowadays, we need to be prepared to start the process of getting a loan, by giving all kinds of documentation about the different sorts of income that we may have, such as:

W-2 statements from the past 2 years

Year to date income

any recent pay stubs that show income

2 most recent years of tax returns

Any additional income(alimony, bonuses..etc)

2. We need to prove our assets

In terms of assets, we need to give proof of that we are in a position where we can afford paying the down payment and closing costs, as well as having some cash reserves after that. Normally there will be other requirements such as having to get private mortgage insurance or paying a funding fee, unless we put 20% down.

Also remember that your pre-approval will be based on your FICO credit score, debt-to- income ratio and other factors, and that all loans, except Jumbo loans, are conformed to GSE guidelines.

3. We need good credit

You will find that most lenders require at least 620 FICO score or above to get your loan approved, even for FHA loans sometimes. What are FHA loans? they are those that require lower minimum down payments than conventional loans. For these, as we mentioned in the video you’ll need at least a 580 credit score to get pre-approved. However, if your score is lower, you can still get a FHA loan with a 10% down payment.

If you have a high score (760 or above) lenders will offer you low interests, but if on the other hand, you have a low credit score, don’t worry as lenders will suggest ways to improve your score. The only downside for low score borrowers will be that they’ll have to pay their mortgages in longer periods of time.

That’s all for today, hope you found this content useful and don’t forget to follow Sean La Rue in all social media to stay tuned to all kinds of information about qualifying, real state finance… This has been the first of many articles for Monday Mortgage Madness.